Leonard shows way to save forest
ORANI, Bataan—Using a guidebook authored by the late botanist Leonard Co, students, environment advocates and government officials trekked for 40 kilometers across the caldera of Mount Natib from Orani to Morong in Bataan recently.
Its first stage was a 15-km “adventure hunt” into the dense jungle, with teams trying to find plants that match those in their guidebooks.
Felicito Payumo, chairman of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), the agency which helped organize the
Mt. Natib Flora Adventure Hunt, said the activity was done in Co’s honor.
“It showcased the rich biodiversity of the Bataan dipterocarp forest and the need to protect the habitat that harbors its flora and fauna because every community in the province depends on the stability and survival of its ecosystem,” he said.
Co was a widely recognized expert on Philippine flora who conducted in 2009 a field survey of plants inside the Bataan National Park (BNP) that spans Natib. He was assisted in his research and documentation by Magbukun Ayta (Aeta) cousins Joseph and Eduardo Salonga.
On Nov. 15, 2010, Co and two other companions died in what the military claimed was a crossfire between Army soldiers and communist rebels while doing a field survey in a forest in Kananga, Leyte. Co’s family has disputed the military’s version of the events leading to his death.
Adventure hunt
Payumo said the adventure hunt on March 31 to April 1 was envisioned to promote the BNP as a model of environmental protection and ecotourism.
This was also meant to “continue the education and awareness of various stakeholders in environmental advocacy, ecotourism promotion and healthy lifestyle, and to highlight the need to use technology in environmental monitoring,” he said.
At least 17 teams, with four members each, joined the adventure hunt armed with their smartphones. They used their phones to photograph plants recorded in their guidebooks. Immediately, images were verified by online judges from the Philippine Native Plants Society and then posted on a dedicated website. Points were given for each assessed plant species.
The teams scoured the BNP looking for plants recorded in Co’s pictorial guidebook, shooting them with smartphones loaded with an application developed by WideOut Technology Services Inc.
The application automatically tags the photographs and sends them to the WideOut website for real time posting. It can also track the progress of a team on the ground. It contains its own global positioning system (GPS) map and flora guidebook to assist the teams.
Night at caldera
The participants spent the night at a camp in Natib’s caldera. April 1 marked the start of the second leg, a 25-km trail run that ended at the Bataan Technology Park in Morong. The race results were combined with the points for the plant hunt to determine the winners.
“It is the marriage of man, technology and ideas that will preserve endangered places like Mt. Natib and the Bataan National Park. What we do [can be followed] in other places where the environment needs to be protected,” Payumo said.
Preserving the BNP is crucial in the development of Bataan and its towns, he said. “There must be a final line beyond which no development will be allowed, and our populations must not be permitted to go.”
Among the rare species found in the park are the mountain rose and star orchid. Rare animals like cloud rats and Philippine bats (flying foxes) consider the park their home.
But population pressure and illegal logging have resulted in diminishing forest land, Payumo said.
“We can’t help the increase in population, but there should be a strictly protected area, a final line [where development will be banned]. A buffer zone should be established and the buildable area is clearly marked,” he said.
Online deterrents
The use of information technology tools and social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, are powerful deterrents to illegal logging in Bataan, Payumo said.
“The theory is with more eyes looking, crime is prevented. That’s what we want to happen here—more cooperation,” he said.
Event organizer Dennis Cuarto, also a director of the group Mga Bayani ng Kalikasan, said he was hoping that the success of the adventure hunt could be replicated in different national parks around the country.
“The WideOut technology will enable the ordinary citizen to monitor the health of the immediate environment within a community or an ecosystem, and through social media, we can bring pressure to bear on the authorities concerned,” he said.
“With technology and advocacy, we will be able to guard our natural treasures, broaden the awareness of our people and preserve the beauty of our country,” Cuarto said.
The caldera serves both as lungs and lifeline of Bataan, said Payumo, a former representative of the province.
Aeta protection
“The plant life recycles the air while preventing flooding, erosion and soil degradation. The river systems are the main sources of clean water of practically every town and city in Bataan. If the forest cover of BNP is destroyed, the very existence of the Aetas will not only be in peril, but the [survival of the] entire province as well,” he said.
Arnel Paciano Casanova, BCDA president, gave his highest praises to Joseph Salonga, their guide.
“Chair Payumo and I are Harvard [University] graduates. But when it comes to the knowledge of the environment and jungle survival skills, we bow to [Salonga] and to his fellow Aetas,” Casanova said.
Payumo said people must look up to the Aetas when it comes to taking care of and living alongside the environment.
“They do no harm to it and take only what is essential for their subsistence. They know how to live in harmony with nature, and they have been doing so for centuries,” he said.
